Growth & Development

Last week, you might have read a Gizmodo article about how millennials will live in cities unlike anything we've ever seen before. If you haven't read it yet, I highly encourage you to, because, unlike so many articles in the media today, this one does an excellent job of capturing the nuances of why we are seeing certain behavioral patterns among millennials when it comes to where we live.

The critical takeaway from this article is one that has major implications for us in Chapel Hill/Carrboro: Millennials are choosing to live in urban neighborhoods, but not necessarily in urban downtowns.

This behavioral pattern shows that what millennials value is not the big city life itself, but having easy access to amenities like walkability and public transit. For suburbs around the country, this means attracting the next generation of Americans requires urbanizing to provide these kind of amenities.

It’s tough trying to boil multiple-hour meetings into a news story. Local media outlets have recapped the public hearing where the Obey Creek development agreement was approved after a nearly six year process (read more here and here). I tried futilely to capture what Council said in 140 characters (see Storifys from the May 11, May 18, June 8, and June 15 meetings that discussed Obey Creek).

The Chapel Hill Town Council voted 7-1 to approve the Obey Creek development agreement last night. Council member Ed Harrison was the lone no vote against the proposal.

The development will be built across from Southern Village on 15-501 South and, at full buildout, will include 800 apartments and townhomes, 475,000 square feet of retail space, 600,000 square feet of officespace. and 400 hotel rooms. The project is expected to take 20 years to be completed.

The development agreement also preserves 85 acres of land to be named the Wilson Creek Preserve.